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The movie had its moments, but Apollo 18 fails to take off and lands on the found footage genre with a dud.

Three astronauts, Nathan “Nate” Walker (Warren Christie), Benjamin “Ben” Anderson (Lloyd Owen) and John Grey (Ryan Robbins), are sent on a secret lunar mission to drop an “unmanned payload”. Grey stays in orbit in the Freedom Command module, while Anderson and Walker head off to the moon in Liberty. While on the moon, the two astronauts hear an inhuman scream fill their radio frequency and soon discover what their mission really is for.

The movie has an interesting premise and a refreshing take on the found footage format. Apollo 18 hinges on the concept that while Apollo 17 was the last lunar mission, the Department of Defense gave another mission the go signal but its crew never returned. The shots on the moon were impressive and the set pieces looked real. The prospect of staying in a cramped claustrophobic lunar module on a possibly inhabited rock in outer space where no one can hear you scream does give you the creeps.

But the movie takes too long to get the ball rolling and when something finally happens, they’re nothing more than horror tropes. Its attempt at realism is zapped by convenient camera angles that will also leave you wondering “wait, who’s filming this?” The conspiracy bait failed to create any interest either as the suspense free contrived movie drags along. The ending had a creepy punch line but overall, Apollo 18 is a footage with good editing and nice production but empty scares.